For Healthy Aging, Lifestyles Matter!

For Healthy Aging, Lifestyles Matter!

We live in a rapidly aging world with opportunities for longer life, but longevity is often compromised by deteriorating health. In order to maintain functioning and independence in later years, it is important to practice health-promoting behaviors throughout life. What is the current evidence on the role lifestyle factors play in physical and cognitive health? Specifically, lifestyle behaviors’ influence on dementia and frailty, the two major conditions that pose obstacles to healthy aging, will be addressed. This talk will present public recommendations, including practical tips, for engaging in healthy behaviors that can add life to years.
 

Yunhwan Lee, MD, DrPH ‘96, is a Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at Ajou University School of Medicine in South Korea. His research focuses on understanding functional capacity of older adults, identifying its risk factors, and assessing the predictive value of multiple functioning profiles on health outcomes through longitudinal studies of aging. He has developed public health guidelines for promoting cognitive health (PASCAL) and preventing frailty (PROMISE) in older people. He has extensive experience in the design and analysis of national and community-based health surveys of older people. He is currently involved in designing a national survey of healthy aging and long-term care in Korea. Lee received his DrPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management in 1996.